Newtown Settles In for Prayerful, Somber Christmas

Residents of Sandy Hook, Conn., gather every year under an enormous tree in the middle of town to sing carols and light the tree. The tree is lit this year, too, but the scene beneath it is starkly different.

The tree looms over hundreds of teddy bears and toys, but they are for children who will never receive them. The ornaments are adorned with names and jarringly recent birth dates.

Wreaths with pine cones and white ribbons hang near the tree, one each for a life lost. A small statue of an angel child sleeps among a sea of candles.

A steady flow of well-wishers, young and old, tearfully comes to cry, pray, light candles, leave gifts and share hugs and stories.

The Christmas season is a normally joyful time for this tight-knit village, but in the wake of a shooting rampage, holiday decorations have given way this year to memorial signs. And instead of cars with Christmas trees on top, there are media vans with satellites.

Connie Koch has lived in Newtown for nine years. She lives directly behind Sandy Hook Elementary School, where Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six adults before turning the gun on himself. Earlier that Friday morning, he had also killed his mother at home.

Koch said the shocked town, which includes the Village of Sandy Hook, is experiencing a notably different Christmas this year.

"It's more somber, much more time spent in prayer for our victims' families and our friends that have lost loved ones," she said as she stood near the base of the tree.

"My daughter, she lost her child that she babysat for for six years," she said, holding back tears. "And for her friend who lost her mother. And for my dear friend who lost one of her friends in the school, one of the aides.

"It's hard. And there will be much prayer on Christmas morning for these people, for our community."

Koch said her community always rallies in the face of tragedy, but the term "hits close to home" resonates this time more than ever before. She says the only way to make it through is one day at a time.

"It's all you can do, one hour at a time," Koch said. "For me, I don't even want to wake up in the morning because I don't want to have to face it again. You feel like it's still just a dream and with the funerals starting, it's becoming more real. It's becoming more final."

Another Newtown parent, Adam Zuckerman, stood by the makeshift memorial with a roll of red heart stickers with the words, "In Our" above a drawing of the Sandy Hook Elementary School welcome sign. He was selling the stickers to collect money for a Sandy Hook victims' fund.

"It's a lot," he said of the events of the past few days. "We don't know how it's going to affect our community, but I feel very strongly that I needed to do something to keep it positive, to keep this community positive."

Zuckerman's 20-year-old stepdaughter came home from college for winter break the night before the shooting. As a high school student, she worked in one of the town's popular toy stores.

"She knew a lot of the kids," he said of his daughter. "Their parents brought them in over the years. We have other friends who have lost family here and good friends who are dear friends with the principal of the school. … It's pretty rough."

As far as the holidays, Zuckerman said, "Everybody I know is spending time with friends, spending time with family and just staying connected and staying positive."

Well-wishers have come from all across the country and the world to visit this town and to visit the memorial that has grown beneath the tree.

A choir group from Alabama -- part of the National Association for the Prevention of Starvation -- stood beside the tree singing a mixture of Christmas carols and songs of comfort like, "Lean on Me."

Group members were at their annual fundraising event in Florida when they heard about the shooting.

"When we heard the news on Friday, our hearts sunk, of course, and we decided to come up on Saturday night," Adrian Roll, spokesman for the choir, said. "We drove all night. It took us about 20 plus hours to get here."

"When we got here, it was just an eerie type feeling," he said. "It hurt a whole lot to see that so many young children had lost their lives. But one thing that was comforting was to see how many people came together for the sake of the families and the people that were affected by it."

There is one Christmas gift the choir wishes to give: hope.

"The hope is to instill hope into everyone who's affected, not just here in Sandy Hook, but people across the country, across the world," Roll said. "I've seen people from Canada, France and other places coming here for this same reason."

For Koch, the nine-year Newtown resident, the prayers and well wishes from around the world are helping her get out of bed in the morning. And she has one particular request for others in the days and weeks ahead.

"Keep praying. God is good," she said. "There are times when we can't pray and we need others praying for us."

Recommended for You

A kindhearted stranger has paid off more than $900 in overdue lunch balances for students at an elementary school in Herminie, Pennsylvania. "We're calling him our 'Secret Santa,'" said Amy Larcinese, principal of HW Good Elementary School.

When the Ugly Christmas Sweater Shop in Dallas, Texas, decided to expand and open new locations this year, its owner took an unconventional approach to hiring new employees. He had them submit a video of their best dance moves, reported ABC affiliate WFAA in Dallas. "We found a lot of great people

A dinosaur tail preserved in amber has been discovered for the first time ever, researchers announced on Thursday in a paper published in the scientific journal Cell Biology. The feather-covered tail is from a dinosaur that lived on Earth about 99 million years ago, according to a news release from

A woman with a double amputation was left lying on the ground for several minutes after she fell off her wheelchair while being arrested at a gas station in Miami-Dade County, Florida, according to videos captured by witnesses and a police officer's body camera. The woman who was arrested -- 52-

A 4-year-old California girl battling leukemia took over the city of Sacramento today as Make-A-Wish transformed her into a princess for a day. Alyla Stamp, 4, of Yuba City, California, was surprised this morning with a trip to a Macy’s department store in Sacramento where she received her princess

As locals near Washington, D.C.’s Comet Pizza restaurant know too well, fake news headlines can have real-world implications. Edgar Welch allegedly fired three shots at the local hotspot after driving 350 miles from North Carolina in order to investigate a fake news story that the pizzeria was home

The former boyfriend of Anastasia Duval, whose twin sister, Alexandria Duval, has been charged with murdering her -- after an SUV driven by Alexandria plunged off a cliff in Hawaii in May -- has given his first TV interview, during which he described the pair's tenuous relationship. Alexandria Duval

T.J. Miller, the host of the Critics’ Choice Awards, was arrested early this morning on a battery charge only two days before the live show airs. Police arrested the HBO “Silicon Valley” actor after officers responded to the 6900 block of Camrose Drive in Los Angeles at 1 a.m. where a car company driver

Stepping onto this Pittsburgh city bus is like taking a ride on Santa’s sleigh.For more than a decade, driver Bill Sanfilippo has decked out his bus in head-to-toe Christmas decorations.“People love it. It puts a smile on their face,” the 12-year veteran of Allegheny County Port Authority told ABC News.Every

In July, Taylor Swift hosted a big Independence Day party, and both Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively attended. One photo in particular stuck out of Reynolds, Lively, Swift, her then-beau Tom Hiddleston, and another couple. All had big smiles on their faces, but Reynolds had a pretty lackluster look.

Behold, the chocolate chip taco cookie with chocolate peppermint mousse. It's the whimsical culinary creation of celebrated chef David Burke and ABC News' "Good Morning America" went inside the kitchen at his newest New York City restaurant, Tavern 62, and learned how to make the holiday

President Obama has ordered a "full review" of what the intelligence community has called Russian hacking activity related to the 2016 election and expects to receive the report before he leaves office, a senior White House official said today. “The president has directed the intelligence

Actor Ryan Gosling discussed his upcoming musical "La La Land," and his own personal experience of moving to Los Angeles to follow his dreams in an interview with "Good Morning America" that aired today. "You know, it's not easy to leave your hometown and your family and

African-American model Deddeh Howard is on a mission to change the fashion industry, one revolutionary image at a time. Howard posted photos of herself recreating ad campaigns, such as Kendall Jenner for Calvin Klein, Gigi Hadid for Guess and Kate Moss for David Yurman, in a project she called “Black

A woman accused of murdering her twin sister by driving their vehicle off a cliff in Hawaii waived her right to an extradition hearing in a New York court this morning. Alexandria Duval, 38, entered the Albany County courtroom in shackles, a yellow jumpsuit and with her long blonde hair pulled back.

The first trailer for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" is here and there's a lot to take in, including a new villain, a new suit, new friend and ... new lady loves? The clip, which premiered last night on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," opens with Spidey doing what he does best. Next, we take

In fact, Helen and Al Giugliano are hilariously irate as Gabriella Rutigliano treks to class as she's studying nursing at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. The two, who now reside in Hauppauge, New York, have four daughters, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren between them

Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced today that Florida is now clear of locally-transmitted Zika for the first time since July. Since the Zika outbreak was announced in the state, four zones of ongoing Zika transmission had been identified and subsequently cleared in recent months. Today the last &quot

Celine Dion is celebrating the holidays for the first time without her late husband, René Angélil.Angélil, who had also been Dion's manager for decades and her husband since 1994, passed away Jan. 14 after a long battle with throat cancer. He died two days before his 74th birthday.Dion told the New